Capital letters

Capital letters

We win our reader £3,380 for HSBC Life's mis-selling Ten years ago, I was working as a civil servant. I realised then that I should be saving more to help boost my retirement income.

I went to the local Midland Bank (now HSBC) for advice as I had had an account with them for many years. I told them that I wanted to retire in 2001 (eight years into the future then).

I was asked what I could afford and the adviser pointed me towards a 10-year life insurance policy with Midland Life (now HSBC Life). I signed up for £55 a month plan in the Moneybuilder policy. I was not offered any alternative. The bank also decided the fund choice.

Over the 10 years, I paid my £55 on time each month, making a total £6,600. I had hoped the plan would be worth £9,000 to £10,000. But when I received a letter informing me the plan was about the mature, HSBC Life said I would get about £5,120. I would have been better off putting the money into a piggy bank! Is this bad luck or mis-selling?JE, Berkshire

· You first wrote to Capital Letters in April and your story was featured in Jobs & Money shortly afterwards. What you were sold was a maximum investment plan, or MIP. This is an expensive life policy where half the first year's premiums, the ones that have to work hardest and longest, disappeared into the bank's coffers. There is little life cover.

The plan's high costs meant your return would have been lower than expected whatever hap pened in stock markets. But the bear market over the past three years has hit your plan hard, despite the apparent low risk of the "balanced fund".

Capital Letters suggested you complain about your policy to HSBC and ask for compensation, which you did. In a commendably speedy reply, the bank said its performance was in line with similar funds elsewhere so it rejected this complaint.

But you wanted a plan that would enable you to boost your pension starting in 2001 and the MIP had severe penalties for stopping early, ruling out encashment two years ago. So HSBC concedes you were mis-sold and the advice was "inappropriate."

The bank will return your premiums with interest in line with ombudsman rules. Instead of £5,120, you will now receive £8,500, an uplift of £3,380.

Charity's aerial combat with ITV Digital bosses I am treasurer of a small registered charity for young people aged 10-18. At the end of 2001, we took out an ITV Digital package. ITV Digital said we had a poor credit rating and demanded a £500 deposit, to be returned after one year of satisfactory payments. We paid.

When ITV Digital ceased trading we owed them £132.50 but they still had our deposit. We asked the liquidators, Grant Thornton, for the balance of £367.50 back.

The liquidators told us we could expect two pence in the pound at most - £7.34p. I argued that a deposit is customer money held against a failure to pay, not a fund to be looted for debts. But the liquidators were unmoved.

I feel that ITV Digital obtained our deposit fraudulently and has now stolen it. Am I right in this contention and is there no redress?JW, Oxford

· The now very bust ITV Digital did have a right to demand a deposit as they could not find a credit record for your charity as you do not need one. But ITV Digital was very wrong in the way it treated your deposit. It should have ring-fenced it in a special trust which would have remained untouched in the event of a liquidation.

Instead, it put the money into its coffers - where it has disappeared. ITV Digital, which went bust for around £1.2bn, is asking former subscriber creditors to give the 50p or so each is due to one of four charities - Marie Curie Cancer Care, National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, Make A Wish and the Royal National Institute of the Blind.

You should write to Charles Allen, executive chairman of former ITV Digital shareholder Granada at The London Television Centre, Upper Ground London SE1 9LT. He earned £2.5m last year so he can afford to personally help your cause.

Michael Green of Carlton controlled the other half of ITV Digital. He can be found at 25 Knightsbridge, London SW1X 7RZ. He earned £707,000 last year and can easily afford to donate as well.

· I purchased a new Apple iMac computer from PC World, part of Dixons, last week. I was recommended its own PC Performance extended warranty package for £317. It stretched the one-year maker's guarantee to three years. I bought it.

But when I registered my computer with Apple on the phone, I was asked if I wanted its Applecare Protection Plan for the same three years - at a £139 cost.

Is the Dixons plan worth a further £178? BA, London

· It's worth a lot to Dixons, which makes much of its profits from extended warranty sales. The competition commission believes retailers, led by Dixons, have a case to answer after a recent probe into the value of extended warranties. The commission believes consumers are offered scant choice, with "very little, if any" information provided on options such as plans from makers.

The PC World plan does include an annual "healthcheck", although not at your home, and theft insurance - but as yours is a desktop, it will be covered by your home policy.

The Apple Mac plan has a built-in software helpline, while the Dixons equivalent charges £1 a minute with a maximum 20 minutes.

It is hard to see why the Dixons product is £178 better and I understand you have used your 14-day cooling off rights - although you had failed to get through to the Dixons call centre after four 15 minute calls. You have now sent a written cancellation notice.

· In March, I rented a car from Easy-Rent-a-Car, and paid the central London congestion charge fee online. However, a few days later I received (through Easy) a penalty charge notice. The car hire firm also hit me with a £10 fee for "redirecting the fine."

Easy debited my credit card. But although I successfully disputed the congestion charge penalty, I received no refund for the Easy administration fee.

The car hire firm told me that even if the congestion charge penalty was issued by mistake, it still had to process the fine and that's why it charged the £10 fee. Easy suggested I ask the congestion charge people for the money but after I filled out a long application form, they replied that no refund was due. Can you help?MP, London

· When Capital Letters phoned Easy, we found an apologetic mood. It seems your case was dealt with by a new employee who did not follow procedures and will now have some extra help in dealing with customers. Easy will continue to charge "guilty" customers the £10 but its policy is to refund the innocent. Your credit card will receive £10.

· I am a first-year degree student. In September, NatWest attended our freshers' fair to encourage students to open accounts with the promise of a £40 cash credit.

I opened an account with them but I am still waiting for the £40. I have filled out endless forms at the NatWest branch but now l am told it's too late to get the money because l should have gone to them earlier - although l have been complaining for months.

Is the money real or just a ruse to get us to sign up?MM, London

· All new student accounts should have received £40 (£60 in some areas such as Oxford) or a toaster and kettle package. Most students opted for the better value cash boost. There was no minimum deposit requirement.

NatWest is at a loss to explain the seven-month delay in your case other than to surmise there was a keyboard error so the bank did not know you were a student. But this does not explain why the branch ignored your protestations.

NatWest will now write to apologise and credit your account with £100 including £60 ex gratia compensation.

· I invested £3,300 in a scheme called eforyou.com which you exposed as a scam. I was lucky enough to get my money back via my credit card, when eforyou went bust.

Now I have been asked by another ex-eforyou person to look at "a UK-based internet opportunity growing at 30% a month, and signing people up from all over the world." Is this the genuine opportunity it claims to be? CS, Liverpool

· Eforyou.com was the brainchild of Chris Douglas, his partner Karen Kenyon and Peter Carbert, a director of the high profile company Century Mortgages which was closed down by the DTI.

It purported to offer websites to small businesses and a quick fortune to those providing the internet facilities. But its real purpose was to net money from the unsuspecting. It took £3.5m from would-be entrepreneurs be fore it was shut down. Now entrepreneurs Len Fitzgerald and Tom Brodie are trying to persuade victims into a new get rich scheme.

Virtual World Direct e-Lottery is a pyramid based on the UK Lotto. It claims syndicates win more prizes - although this is unsurprising as syndicates collectively buy more tickets than individuals.

The idea is that you persuade people to join a £5 a week scheme and earn £1 from this. You also have to convince people to pay a £44.99 joining fee.

If you reach the top seventh level of the pyramid you should earn nearly £1.3m a year. This depends on your pyramid recruiting 97,655 people who stick with the plan for at least 12 months. But if you only recruit five, you will get just £5 a week.

It is unclear just how many tickets the present syndicate buys each week. Tickets are not bought in the name of individuals. And Lotto operator Camelot has no interest in or control over this scheme.

· I am 15 and I want to start saving. I have a couple of hundred pounds and a weekend job. Could you advise me on how best to invest over a few years? I'm open to anything relatively low risk.LB, Yorkshire

· Full marks for enterprise in writing to us rather than throwing yourself on the mercy of the limited advice of any one high street bank. But - sorry to sound pedagogic - please don't use phrases like "relatively low risk". That is how financial firms persuade customers who want a safe account to go into dodgy investment plans.

If you want zero risk, the Nationwide has a "Smart" account which pays 4.25% to non-taxpayers. Alliance & Leicester and Britannia both pay 4.15%.

Alternatively, you could take a chance on an investment trust regular savings scheme with money going into a mainstream shares fund such as Alliance, Foreign & Colonial or Witan. As you are under 18, a parent must act for you.

· We welcome letters but cannot answer individually. Write to: Capital Letters, Jobs & Money, The Guardian, 119 Farringdon Road, London EC1R 3ER or email jobs.and.money@theguardian.com. Do not send original documents but do enclose a daytime phone number. Information is general and offered without any legal responsibility. Always take professional advice if in doubt.